Tag: marketing

First of all, can you believe it is the middle of January already? Geesh, time flies. I guess being out of town the first week of the month made it fly all the faster. By the way, my wise meditation teacher has a theory on why we think that time goes faster as we age: because we’ve done the same things so many times that we are doing them mindlessly. And if we took the time to do them mindfully, time would slow down again. I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly struggling to be more mindful, so this is good impetus.

Anyway, there’s lots going on around the interwebs this month, even if it is January. When I was a kid, I hated January. It seemed do depressing and blah after the holidays. Now I see it differently–and I love it. The month feels clean and fresh to me, and the unlimited blank canvas of the year stretches before me. I’m thinking up ideas for books and content, and getting inspired about things I can do. Accordingly, I’ve got a mixed bag of links today. (Oh, when do I have anything but a mixed bag? It is just the way my brain works.)

Larry Brooks on his rabid belief in story structure. He will hunt you down and kill you if you don’t follow his method exactly. Or at least that’s how his writing comes off. He drives me nuts, but he does make some good points, though his bombastic voice often makes me resist his advice.

A list of the best writing blogs. Some of these are very familiar to me (and probably you), but others, not so much. I can’t quite figure out why they refer to all of them as “copywriting” blogs, though. Ah well, its a great reference.

I’m in love with a mad Russian and his name is Eugene Kaspersky. He’s the head of an international cyber-security firm and he flies around the world in his spare time, which is always. Goes to obscure places (Kamchatka, anyone?) and takes tons of great photos, which he accompanies with wry commentary.

That’s it, that’s all I’ve got. Have a great weekend and share any great links, writing-related or otherwise, you might come across–including your very own blog!

I am one of the worst marketers in the world. There's something about shouting my name out from the rooftops that makes me cringe. And I know that I am not alone in this. But last week I had an experience that gave me some new perspective on the topic. And from that I learned something that I hope to figure out how to apply going forward.

I've heard that one way to succeed is to quit worrying about promoting yourself and put others first. But how, exactly, are you supposed to do this? Beats me. Don't have a clue. In the past, I'd read this sage wisdom, nod my head, think for a minute how this might work, come up blank, and quit thinking about it. Then go back to my usual marketing ploys. In other words, doing nothing.

Maybe a Different Way?

But here's what happened last week that put this into perspective and showed me how it might work:

#1 I had a reading at a local bookstore that I like a lot. I like the owner a lot, too. She supports local authors like crazy and is doing her best to create a nice community around her store. More than anything, I really wanted to introduce people to her store.

#2 I was reading with my Twitter friend Kayla Dawn Thomas, who was coming down from Washington. She didn't know many people in the area, and this was her first reading. So I wanted to make sure she had an audience, too.

Are you sensing a theme here? I had two people I wanted to make happy. And because of that, I pulled out the stops, sending out emails and promoting on Twitter like crazy. In the emails, I wrote about how great the bookstore was, and asked people to stop in some time even if they couldn't make it to the reading.

In other words, I had a mission larger than myself.

And the Winner Is…

The ultimate result was a reading that about 25 people attended, which is not bad at all for a Thursday night in summer. And I've cemented a wonderful relationship with Elisa, the bookstore owner. She's offered to do my launch for The Bonne Chance, about which I am very excited, and Debbie and I will likely do our workshops there in the future. (Local writers–we are planning one in October about all aspects of publishing, including how to get an agent, book contracts, and indie publishing.)

The thing is, I felt so much more comfortable doing the marketing when I was talking about the bookstore and Kayla. How to expand this into larger marketing efforts? I don't have a clue. But recently on the Women's Fiction Writer's Association mailing, there was a link to Kristin Lamb's blog, which I hadn't read for awhile. In wandering through its pages, I found the link to her most recent book, Rise of the Machine, Human Authors in a Digital World, which I gather from the reviews has a somewhat similar theme. (From a review: "Well, here's the big deal. It's not about promoting yourself. It's about caring for your neighbor.")

So, I'm onto something here, even if I am late to the party. And I'm going to figure out how it works.

Do you have ideas about how to put this in motion? Ideas about marketing in general? Please do share in the comments. This is a topic all writers need to know more about, I'd wager! Your ideas may help someone else–which is the whole point.

I'm not entirely certain I can explain this. But, as always, that never stopped me and I'll give it a go.

As I've mentioned before, I'm studying marketing, of the internet and other varieties. My new favorite expert in this field is Lisa Sasevich, and one of the things she talks about a lot is utilizing the language of your client to sell them stuff. She says it a lot more eloquently than that, but you get the drift. A lot of this has to do with figuring out the transformation that you have to offer and talking about it accordingly.

So, for instance, because I want to market myself to creative professionals who need a book to boost their careers, I needed to realize a crucial point: these potential buyers of my future products want to have written a book. They want the book in their hot little hands, all finished. They could give a rip about writing itself, as you, my loyal readers are interested in. So when I'm speaking to this market I need to speak differently (and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a new blog/site to do it).

But you see what I'm saying, right?

And I've been thinking about how this also applies to creative writing. Because sometimes we carry a story around with us, and have things that we also think about it, but somehow those things we always think or say don't get out on the page. And that stuff is the stuff we want to pull up and put on the page. It is the way you always tell the story–whether to yourself or to a regular audience. That's where the power is.

Do you have a story you tell about, say, the first time you met the love of your life? And if so, do you have a standard line you begin it with? But do you use that line when you are actually putting words on paper? Or do you decide you need to get all formal and official and say things the correct way? To hell with that. Write it the way you say it.

I'm working with a client who is writing the story of her husband's brain tumor and his eventual death. She is the first to admit that she's not a writer. But the great thing about her is that she's written the entire story down, start to finish, and the way she has written it is exactly the way she has told me parts of the story.

This is how we get to voice, people. It is that thing deep within us that we edit out half the time.

Think about it. And comment about it, too.

By the way, Jessica wrote a post about creative English when trying to communicate in another language that made me think more about this topic. So hop on over there and read it.

It wasn't really lost, in the sense that it was something I desperately missed. It was more like it was buried under the multitude of interests and ideas that crowd my sometimes-mushy brain (too much going on in there!)

It wasn't even something that I felt I needed. The experts, however, say otherwise. It took quite a bit of convincing, and reading a book to get me searching for my niche. And then, as is so often the case, I found it right under my nose.

Are you ready?

My niche is information about creating a writing life while writing your book or waiting for it to sell. Or, in short, creating a life devoted to writing. That has a nice ring to it. Right?

I know. Duh. Like I haven't been writing about just that already. But you'd be surprised how difficult it can be to decide what it is exactly that I do. Because, like many writers, I do many different things. I'm terrible at networking events because my 20-second elevator pitch goes something like this:

"And what do you do?" (Woman dressed in killer designer suit with beautifully lacquered nails.)

"Well, I ghostwrite. And I teach writing. And I coach writers. And I run a writing program. And I write this blog that talks about writing. And then there's my own writing, the novels and short stories."

I'm telling the last part of it to the woman's back–the suit cuts a gorgeous line from the rear, too–because I've lost her. She is off looking for someone who can tell her succinctly what he can do.

Since I'm not a big fan of networking events anyway, except for one I belong to in LA, I've managed to convince myself I don't really need a niche. I have now seen the error of my ways and will spend the next year repenting.

Actually, I'm really happy about this because identifying my niche gives me permission to do more of what I'm already doing. I'm going to continue writing posts about craft and creativity and how they apply to making a life devoted to writing.

One of my twitter friends, Mary, asked me to define "writing life" after I proudly tweeted about my niche. And so here goes. Creating a life devoted to writing can mean actually making a living writing, supplementing your income with writing, or just learning how to make contacts and attend events relating to writing, even if you don't need to earn a living from it. A life devoted to writing implies that you make time for it regularly–another thing I talk a lot (some would probably say too much). Creating a life devoted to writing means that the written word (and you practicing it) is front and center in your life.

So, there you have it, a niche, found. And now excuse me while I go practice my elevator pitch.

Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior

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